Navigation lane guidance

ABSTRACT

A navigation system provides lane guidance for a navigation route. The navigation route specifies actions for a user to navigate a route from an originating point to a destination along a set of road segments. The lane guidance at a position along the navigation route scores the lanes and provides the lane scoring for the user. To score the lanes, the navigation system determines a lane distance for each lane indicating how far along the navigation route a user may continue to use this lane, without shifting to another lane. The lane distance may be measured up to a look-ahead distance. The lane distance includes distance along subsequent road segments of the route, such that when a lane turns onto a lane on another road segment according to the navigation route, the distance along the other road may be included in the lane distance.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of co-pending U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 15/672,026, filed Aug. 8, 2017, which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/717,979, filed May 20, 2015, now U.S.Pat. No. 9,816,830, issued Nov. 14, 2017. All of the above applicationsare incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

The described embodiments relate generally to providing drivingguidance, and particularly to providing lane guidance to improve laneselection while navigating a route.

Navigation services provide directions for a user to follow to reach adestination. The directions are provided as a navigation route,instructing a user which roads to use to arrive at the destination.Current navigation services typically provide navigation services on aturn-by-turn basis. That is, the navigation system specifies a turn fromone road to another. However, users are often faced with roads thatinclude several lanes of traffic, without knowing which lanes are bestbefore the turn, or during the turn which turning lane is preferable.Since lanes may merge with other lanes, split into multiple lanes, beineligible to perform a desired turn, and so forth, users may spendconsiderable time navigating lanes on a road to identify preferred lanesfor an unfamiliar route.

SUMMARY

A navigation system provides lane guidance along a navigation route. Thenavigation system provides turn-by-turn directions along a navigationroute (e.g., a set of roads or road segments) from a start position (ora current position) to a destination, for example, by indicating whichroads will provide an efficient route. Each road or road segmentincludes one or more lanes, particular ones of which enable a driver totake individual actions designated by the navigation route, such asturning right, turning left, staying right at a lane split, etc. Thenavigation route may also identify lane relationships that occur as aconsequence of the manner in which road segments connect. For example,performing an action of turning right on a lane second from the right ona first road segment in a route may place the user in a middle lane ofthe next road segment.

The navigation system determines lane scoring information for lanesalong the navigation route. To score the lanes, the navigation systemdetermines a lane distance that the lane continues along the navigationroute. Certain lanes may be eligible to perform the next action forcontinuing along the route, while other lanes proceed in otherdirections that do not continue along the route. To determine a scorefor a lane, the navigation system determines how long a driver maycontinue along the lane while following actions on that lane thatcontinue on along the route. For example, a navigation route may specifythat a user should continue along a road for the next 5,000 feet from aspecified position. At that specified position, there are two lanes, onewhich is required to turn right in 500 feet, while the other continuesalong the route for more than 5,000 feet. These lanes are scored bydetermining how far the user may continue along the lanes, in thisexample, the lane which is required to turn right in 500 feet scoreslower than the lane that continues along the navigation route.

As noted, to measure and score each lane, the navigation systemdetermines a lane distance identifying how far the lane continues alongthe route. In the previous example, the lane distance for the lane thatis forced to turn right is 500 feet, as that lane no longer continuesalong the route after it is forced to turn. The lane distance for thelane may be measured to a maximum look-ahead value, which can be based,for example, on a distance or driving time ahead of the current positionfor lane guidance. When determining the lane distance for a lane, thenavigation system follows the lane through turns and other actions inthe navigation route to include in the lane distance any subsequent roadsegment and lane on the subsequent road accessed by the evaluated road.The lane on the subsequent road may be similarly evaluated to determinefurther distance along that lane and additional actions along thenavigation route that continue in that lane. Each lane is scored usingthe associated lane distance, with increasing scores when the lanedistance is higher, indicating that a user may stay in that lane for alonger amount of time without requiring further lane changes. Thescoring may also be affected by expected traffic, merges or splits ofthe road, and other features. Using the scoring, the scored lanes may besent to a user, using video or audio instructions to indicate thepreferred lane for the user's position.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an environment for a navigation system 100 accordingto one embodiment.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a navigation route.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example method for providing lane guidance inconnection with a navigation route according to one embodiment.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example interface for providing lane guidance to auser.

FIGS. 5A and 5B illustrate example interfaces for providing compoundlane guidance according to one embodiment.

The figures depict various embodiments of the present invention forpurposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readilyrecognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments ofthe structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed withoutdeparting from the principles of the invention described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 illustrates an environment for a navigation system 100 accordingto one embodiment. The navigation system 100 receives requests for anavigation route from a user device 120 via a network 130 and providesthe requested navigation route and related lane guidance to the userdevice 120. The navigation route describes a list of road segments for avehicle to navigate from a start position to a destination, whichincludes a set of actions for the user to perform while navigating theroads, such as turning left, turning right, or continuing straight. Thenavigation system 100 provides lane guidance to the user device 120 toindicate particular lanes that are preferable at various points in thenavigation route. This lane guidance may indicate, for example, anordered or score preference for lanes at a particular part of thenavigation route.

The user device 120 (or other system providing requests to thenavigation system 100) provides a navigation request to the navigationsystem 100. The user device 120 is any suitable computing system, suchas an in-vehicle navigation system or car dashboard. The user device mayalso be a laptop, a handheld computing device (such as a mobile phone ortablet computer), and the like that provide computing and locationinformation to the navigation system 100 as described herein. The userdevice 120 may also be any additional electronic used for travel.

According to some examples, a user can operate the user device 120 tomake a request for navigation to the navigation system 100. The requestfor navigation may designate, for example, a destination for thenavigation, or a search string for the navigation system 100 to identifythe destination by searching a database for a destination using thesearch string. For example, the user can provide input, via an inputmechanism, such as a touch-sensitive display of the user device 120, tospecify an address or a point of interest as the destination the userwishes to travel to. The user device 120 in some embodiments includes apositioning system, such as a global positioning system (GPS) receiver,or other means of determining the position of the user device 120, suchas by triangulation to local wireless receivers. The location of theuser device 120 may be included with the request. The user device 120receives a navigation route from the navigation system 100 and providesinstructions from the navigation route to the user, including, in oneexample, step-by-step guidance as the navigation route is followed(e.g., by presenting content to a display of the user device 120 and/oroutputting audio using a set of speakers). When the navigation routeincludes lane guidance information, the user device 120 can also displaythe route guidance information on the display of the user device 120and/or output audio corresponding to the lane guidance information(e.g., by voice). The user device 120 may receive lane guidance as partof the received navigation route or routing information, or the userdevice 120 may request lane guidance from the navigation system 100 asthe route is navigated.

The network 130 provides a pathway for communication between the userdevice 120 and the navigation system 100. The network 130 is anysuitable type of network for this communication, which may be wired orwireless, and may pass through intermediary switches and nodes betweenthe user device 120 and navigation system 100. Each of the navigationsystem 100 and the user device 120 can include communicationsub-systems, such as wireless transceivers, to exchange data over thenetwork 130.

The navigation system 100 includes various modules and data stores forperforming route navigation and lane guidance. As described herein, amodule or a component can include or correspond to a program, asub-routine, a portion of a program, or a software component or hardwarecomponent capable of performing one or more stated tasks or functions. Amodule or a component can exist on a hardware component independently ofother modules or components, or alternatively, can be a shared elementor process of other modules, programs, or machines. In the example ofFIG. 1, the navigation system 100 can include a front end module 102, arouting module 104, a lane guidance module 106, and a traffic module108. The navigation system 100 also includes a map data store 110. Insome examples, various features described herein as relating to thenavigation system 100 may be implemented by the user device 120. Forexample, in one implementation, the routing and/or lane guidance modulescan be implemented by the user device 120, while in anotherimplementation, the navigation system 100 can be wholly implemented bythe user device 120 rather than comprising a separate system.

The map data store 110 includes map data used for generating navigationroutes. The map data includes roads, addresses, intersections,destination information (e.g., points of interest and businessinformation), and other data for generating navigation information ofroads. The map data can also specify the number of lanes for a road atvarious parts of the road, permitted actions from particular lanes (suchas whether a lane must turn right, may turn right or go straight, ormust go straight), maximum speed of a road, average speed of drivers ona road, and so forth. Still further, in one example, the map data may bestored as a plurality of layers, e.g., individual layers for highwayroads, for major streets, and for minor streets, while in anotherexample, the map data may be stored as a graph, with road segmentsrepresenting connections between nodes in the graph. The nodes mayrepresent intersections or other transitions between roads in the graph.

The front end module 102 receives requests for navigation from the userdevice 120. The front end module 102 also transmits the navigated routesand lane guidance to the user device 120. The front end module 102communicates with the user device 120 according to the protocols used bythe user device 120 to access the navigation system 100. For example,the front end module 102 may provide the navigation route using aprotocol specialized for the user device 120, and may not be responsiblefor generating an interface for display to the user. In alternativeembodiments, the front end module 102 can provide an interface (e.g., aweb page) for display to the user device 120, can provide an applicationprogramming interface (API) to a program operated on the user device120, or can communicate with a proprietary application associated withthe navigation system 100 that is stored on the user device 120, amongother configuration options. After receiving the navigation request, thefront end module 102 transfers the navigation request to routing module104.

The routing module 104 generates a navigation route from a startposition to a destination. The routing module 104 accesses the map datastore 110 to identify possible routes and road segments that a vehiclecan travel on to get from the start position to the destination. Therouting module 104 scores the possible routes and identifies a preferredroute to reach the destination. The routing module 104 may generate anavigation route that minimizes Euclidean distance traveled or othercost function during the route, and may further access the trafficmodule 108 to receive traffic estimates that affect an amount of time itwill take to travel on a particular route. Depending on implementation,the routing module 104 can generate one or more routes using variousrouting methods, such as Dijkstra's algorithm, Bellman-Ford algorithm,or other algorithms. The routing module 104 may also use the trafficinformation to generate a navigation route that reflects expectedconditions of the route (e.g., current day of the week or current timeof day, etc.), such that a route generated for travel during rush-hourmay differ from a route generated for travel late at night. The routingmodule 104 may also generate more than one navigation route to adestination and send more than one of these navigation routes to theuser device 120 for selection by the user from among various possibleroutes.

The traffic module 108 accesses and provides traffic data relating toroads and, where available, for individual lanes of traffic on a road.The traffic information may be based on data received from varioussources, such as third-party providers, or by analyzing the speed ofusers navigating routes planned by the navigation system. For example,the traffic module 108 can receive, over the network 130, a plurality ofGPS location points from individual user devices 120 of a plurality ofuser devices 120. The traffic module 108 can determine trafficinformation along a particular road segment based on the GPS locationpoints and their corresponding timestamps. The traffic information mayreflect real-time data, and may include accidents and construction orroad work that impacts traffic on a road, or may impact individual lanesof traffic. For example, an accident on the right-most lane of a highwaymay impact the right-most lanes of the highway more severely than theleft-most lane of the freeway. The real-time data may be derived from avariety of sources, such as reports of road conditions from public orprivate sources, or crowd-sourced information from individual usersnavigating traffic. The traffic module 108 may also include historicinformation relating to the traffic on a road or lane as it varies withrespect to particular repeatable periods of time, such as within a dayor within a week. In addition, particular days of the year may beidentified for purposes of traffic data, such as the days aroundparticular holidays or other events that impact traffic, such assporting events.

The routing module 104 can also determine lane-by-lane traffic scoringbased on inferences or rules of traffic related to a lane. For example,for a road segment that is typically not impacted by traffic, a lanethat may continue along the road or turn onto another road may beimpacted by traffic on the other road. If traffic is expected along theother road, that traffic may impact traffic in that lane, even forroutes that continue along the first road. Similarly, a lane that has anupcoming merge with another lane, as is often the case with highwayon-ramps, may score poorly relative to lanes that do not have toaccommodate merging traffic. These features of a lane may impact thetraffic score of the lane.

The lane guidance module 106 determines lane guidance information forlanes of a given position along a road of a navigation route. The laneguidance module 106 can determine lane information (e.g., the number oflanes, which lanes go straight or turn at what location data points,etc.) for road segments of a navigation route from map data stored inthe map data store 110. The lane guidance information describespreferred lanes of the route, and may indicate lane guidance in severalways. In one example, the lane guidance information includes a score foreach lane of a road segment of the route, which can correspond to arelative score that is relative to other lanes of the road segment (ifmore than one lane exists on the road segment) or correspond to anabsolute score for each lane. In one embodiment, scores for the lanesare scaled relative to the highest-scoring lane and may indicate apercentile of the lane's score compared to the highest-scoring lane. Asfurther described below, the scores for individual lanes may begenerated based on a distance or time that a lane continues along thenavigation route, which may be modified based on other factorsreflecting desirability of a lane, such as expected traffic in the lane.The lane guidance information can be stored in the map data store 110 oranother database accessible by the navigation system 100.

The starting position in the navigation route for which the laneinformation is generated is typically a location of the user (i.e., asprovided by the user device 120), as the user navigates the route.However, the lane information may also be generated for positions alongthe entire navigation route. For example, the lane guidance module 106may evaluate lane information at certain intervals, such as every 100meters, of the navigation route. In one embodiment, rather thanmeasuring intervals by distance, the lane information is evaluated atspecified time intervals, such as the expected distance traveled on thenavigation route each five minutes. In another embodiment, to optimizespace and provide continuous lane guidance without regard to specificdistances or time, lane information is generated by the lane guidancemodule 106 at each point that the number of lanes or the connections tofuture or proceeding lanes change. In this embodiment, between theseevaluated points, the change in score may be interpolated when usermodule 120 displays such lane information.

To generate the lane guidance information, the lane guidance module 106identifies the lanes of the road segment at the position beingevaluated. For each lane, the lane guidance module 106 determines thelength ahead of the position that the lane remains part of thenavigation route, termed a lane distance. The lane guidance module 106may determine the length ahead of the position up to a look-aheaddistance (e.g., in other words, determine the lane distance for aparticular lane from the position being evaluated to the look-aheaddistance, such as one mile). The look-ahead distance may be a staticvalue or may vary. The look-ahead distance may vary as specified by auser of the user device 120, or may vary based on a travel speed at theposition or based on a type of road at the position or a travel time.For example, the look-ahead distance for a highway may be greater than alook-ahead distance on a city street, and a look-ahead distance for avehicle traveling quickly on the highway may be greater than a vehicletraveling slowly on the highway. The look-ahead distance may bedetermined by the lane guidance module 106, or may be determined by theuser device 120. In one embodiment, the user device 120 may set thelook-ahead distance to any value below that generated by lane guidancemodule 106 as may be convenient for or selected by the user.

As the lane guidance module 106 evaluates a lane, the actions along thenavigation route are checked using map data to determine whether anaction (e.g., to turn right or left) is required, and whether the actionis valid for that lane. When the lane does not permit the requiredaction, the lane distance of the lane ends, which may be prior to thelook-ahead distance. For example, when the action requires a user toturn right and the evaluated lane is required to turn left, the lanedistance for the lane is terminated at that point. When the lane isvalid for the required action, the lane guidance module 106 identifieswhich lane on the subsequent road segment receives a vehicle taking theaction from the lane. In this way, the lane on the subsequent roadsegment is “followed” to determine the lane distance for the evaluatedlane. Thus, the lane distance may represent distance along the lane thata user may continue while incorporating lanes in subsequent roads afterexecuting actions for the navigation route. The look-ahead distance mayinclude more than one action in determining the look-ahead for a lane.

In an alternate embodiment, rather than a “look-ahead” from a givenposition, the lane guidance module 106 may determine the lane distancebased on a “look-back” from further points along the route, such thatthe lane guidance module 106 evaluates lane guidance beginning from thedestination in the route, and follows the route towards the beginning ofthe route in generating lane guidance. By following the route guidancefrom the destination to the beginning, the lane guidance module 106 maycount at each position in the navigation route how far each lane was apart of the route already assessed by the lane guidance module 106. Inone embodiment, rather than evaluate each position, the lane guidancemodule 106 evaluates points at which the lanes available on the routechange (e.g., merge, split, or are part of a turn).

After determining a lane distance for a lane, additional scoringfeatures may also be determined for the lane. The scoring features mayinclude various aspects of a lane that suggest the lane will be a betterlane for the navigation route. One scoring feature includes expectedtraffic for the lane. The lane guidance module 106 accesses the trafficmodule 108 to determine expected traffic for the lane, which may beimpacted by the time of day of the route or current lane conditions asdescribed above with respect to the traffic module 108. Another scoringfeature includes whether the lane includes a merge or a split later onin the route. For example, a merge designates that another lane iscombined with the current lane, while a split indicates that anadditional lane is created from the lane. When a merge occurs, trafficis likely to be increased while vehicles from the different lanes mergetogether, and likewise when a split occurs, vehicles in the current laneare likely able to accelerate, as the traffic in one lane may now besplit among two. Thus, the scoring for a merge reduces the desirabilityof a lane and scoring for a split increases the desirability of a lane.Additionally, lanes may be scored by the type of traffic permitted for avehicle. For example, a vehicle identified as a High Occupancy Vehicle(HOV) may indicate a preference for any HOV-specific lanes, while anon-HOV vehicles would be expected not occupy such a lane. In anotherexample, a designated truck lane may be expected to move at a slowerspeed and may further have a lower speed limit for traffic in thedesignated truck lane. Accordingly, non-truck vehicles may receive apenalty to the score function for that lane. Further, local motorvehicle code may indicate when being in a left lane (in a right-handdrive country) is inappropriate except to pass, in which case the scoremay indicate that the right-most lane of good lanes is best for avoidingmerge traffic while not impeding the smooth flow of passing vehicles.

Such score interpretation may be configurable by the user to include orexclude various scoring features. For example, different types ofdrivers may want a particular scoring feature more than other types ofdrivers. In another example, the lane scoring module 106 may modify thelane scores to suggest (i.e., score higher) further left (passing) laneswhen real-time traffic indicates that the current more right(non-passing) lane is slower that the typical traffic-free speed ofvehicles on the road. The further right (non-passing lanes) may also besuggested when further left lanes are shown by real-time traffic to beslower than typical traffic-free speed of vehicles, to discourageprolonged driving in the passing lane. This scoring may only be usedwithin a certain speed range, such as within 0-5 miles of a speed limitfor the road.

In a situation where lane scores are relatively equal for a certainamount of time or distance ahead, the scoring algorithm may attempt todistribute lane load across relatively similar lanes to increase overallroad throughput by using as much lane capacity as possible. Suchdistribution scoring may use the current real-time speed of the currentlane to inform the server's traffic module, helping inform othervehicles around them of the best traffic lane or lanes to be in. Scoresmay be modified both by the lane guidance module and by the user device120, depending on which module is closest to the data necessary to makethe most efficient score adjustments.

Using the lane distance and any applicable scoring features, at a roadsegment for a given current position of the user device 120, the laneguidance module 106 generates a score for each of the one or more lanesat that road segment. The scores for each lane may be scaled based onthe score for the highest-scoring lane. These scores may be converted toa percentile. For example, a first lane may score 15, a second lane 60,a third lane 75, and a fourth lane 0 as a raw score (e.g., from left toright). The lane guidance module 106 identifies the third lane as themaximum-scoring lane, and adjusts the raw scores as a percentile of themaximum-scoring lane. This score provides that the first lane is 20% ofthe maximum, the second lane 80%, the third lane 100%, and the fourthlane 0% of the maximum score. The percentage-based lane score may alsobe rounded to a nearest percentile, such as the nearest 25^(th) or10^(th) percentile.

The lane guidance module 106 may also generate lane guidance informationfor lanes after the next action along the navigation route. Thus, thelane guidance information may indicate scores for lanes after a userturns left or right, for example, and then again may indicate scores forlanes after the user perform the subsequent action, and so forth. Thisadditional guidance may be termed “compound” lane guidance, as itprovides lane guidance for a given position as well as a subsequentposition of along the route. The compound lane guidance information maybe generated when the evaluated position is within a threshold distanceor time of the action. To perform this lane guidance operation, the laneguidance module 106 identifies a subsequent action from the position andgenerates lane guidance information for a second position on the nextroad after the subsequent action. Thus, if a user is two miles from aturn to the right onto another road (and within the compound guidancethreshold), the lane guidance module 106 may generate lane guidanceinformation for the current position as well as lane guidanceinformation for the lanes on the other road after the right turn. Thispermits a user to identify, before the turn, which lanes are preferableon the new road, even when there may not be an immediate turn or otheraction on the new road.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a navigation route. In this example,each road, Alm Street, Beech Street, and Cruise Street, is a one-waystreet for convenience of illustration. The navigation route, in thisexample, begins on Alm Street at start 220 and ends at destination 240.In one example, the start 220 can correspond to the position of the userdevice 120 at the time the navigation route was determined. Thenavigation route directs the user to continue North along Alm Street,turn right on Beech Street, and turn right again on Cruise Street. Thus,in this example, the actions for the navigation route include a rightturn on Beech Street and a right turn on Cruise Street.

As shown in FIG. 2, Alm Street includes lanes 201, 202, and 203, BeechStreet includes lanes 204, 205, and 206, and Cruise Street includeslanes 207 and 208. A vehicle on each lane is permitted to performcertain actions at each intersection between streets as designated bypermitted actions 210 and 212. These actions may be specified by signson the road, and may be represented in the navigation system 100 asactions permitted at specific lanes. These actions may be defined by mapdata, and in some circumstances, some actions may be excluded by rules.For example, since Beech Street is a one-way street, no lanes 201-203may turn onto Beech Street in a way contrary to the one-way street(e.g., vehicles cannot turn left onto Beech Street from Alm Street). Inthis example, on Alm Street at the intersection of Beech Street, lane201 is required to continue on Alm Street, lane 203 is required to turnright onto Beech Street, and lane 202 may continue along Alm Street orturn on Beech Street. On Beech Street at the intersection with CruiseStreet, lane 206 is required to turn right onto Cruise Street, whilelanes 204 and 205 continue along Beech Street.

In this example, the lane guidance module 106 evaluates lane guidanceinformation at multiple instances, such as at positions 230, 232, and234, representing distances far from an intersection (230), nearer to anintersection (232), and close to an intersection (234). These positionsare selected for illustration only to illustrate the lane distancegenerated for various lanes and may represent lane guidance informationgenerated for a user as the user travels through each of the positions230, 232, and 234 as determined by location information. As noted above,lane guidance information may be generated for various points along thenavigation route, and scoring for each lane may be further modifiedbased on various features of the lanes.

At position 230 on the navigation route, there are three lanes 201-203on Alm Street. In this example, the look-ahead distance 240 (e.g., threehundred meters) for each lane from position 230 does not reach theintersection of Alm Street and Beech Street. Thus, in scoring each laneat position 230, the lane guidance module 106 may compute the same scorefor each lane unless other factors affect the scoring for individuallanes (e.g., traffic predictions). These road segments prior to a changein factors (i.e., change in lane conditions) along the route may also beassociated with an offset score to add to each lane to adjust the scoreto that particular point based on the computed scores related to a pointat which the factors change. For example, an offset score may be storedat the point of the intersection of Alm Street and Beech Street. Theuser device 120 may interpolate offset scores between two providedpoints with offset scores (or a zero offset if there is no offset score,but instead a real full score set, at that point).

At position 232 on the navigation route, the look-ahead distance 242 foreach lane reaches (and goes past) the intersection of Alm Street andBeech Street, in this example. At Beech Street, lane 201 does notcontinue along the navigation route, while lanes 202 and 203 may turnright to continue on the navigation route. Thus, the lane distance forlane 201 is limited to the distance to the intersection, while the lanedistance for lanes 202 and 203 may include a portion of Beech Streetuntil the look-ahead distance is reached. That is, the lane distance forlane 202 is evaluated by determining that lane 202 continues through anaction on the navigation route onto lane 205 of Beech Street. Thedistance along lane 202 from position 232 to the intersection (e.g., themiddle of the intersection) and the distance along lane 205 from theintersection to the position corresponding to the end of the look-aheaddistance 242 are combined to determine the lane distance for lane 202(e.g., based on distance information of road segments from the mapdata). Similarly, the respective portion of the lane 203 may be combinedwith the respective portion of the lane 206. Thus, the lane distance (tobe used for scoring) is greater for each of lanes 202 and 203 than lane201, thereby permitting the lane guidance module 106 to generate scoresfor position 232 that indicate lanes 202 and 203 are better lanes forthe user to travel on than lane 201, even though the position 232 maynot necessarily be close enough for turn-specific guidance (e.g., eventhough the user, at position 232, may not have received an instructionto turn right). As an example, the lane scoring for lanes 202 and 203may indicate 100%, while lane 201 scores 80%. This indicates that, atposition 232, lanes 202 and 203 will continue along the navigation routefor a greater distance than lane 201. In other words, while lane 201continues along the route for some amount of time, lane 201 does notcontinue as far along the route relative to lanes 202 and 203.

At position 234 on the navigation route, the look-ahead distance 244 foreach lane reaches (and goes past) the intersection of Alm Street andBeech Street, and like the example for position 232, the lane distancefor each of lanes 202 and 203 continue along the navigation route.Position 234 in this example has an action to turn right on Beech Streetwithin a compound lane guidance threshold (e.g., two hundred meters,five hundred meters, etc.). To provide the compound lane guidance forposition 234, the lane guidance information is generated for position236, which corresponds to a position after the action on the navigationroute. In this example, when evaluating the lane distances for position236, the look-ahead distance 246 may include the intersection of BeechStreet and Cruise Street. According to the navigation route for theuser, when the user is traveling on Beech Street and approaches theintersection of Cruise Street, the user is to take an action to turnright onto Cruise Street. At the time or location where this action isto be performed at Beech Street and Cruise Street, lanes 204 and 205 donot continue along the route, while lane 206 continues along the routeby turning onto lane 207 of Cruise Street. Thus, the lane distance fromposition 236 for each of lanes 204 and 205 may be shorter than the lanedistance of lane 206, which includes the action of turning right ontolane 207. Thus, for example, the lane distance for lane 204 may be 800feet, the lane distance for lane 205 may be 800 feet, and the lanedistance for lane 206 may be 1,000 feet as measured from position 236.By including this compound guidance information, at position 234, a usermay determine that while both lanes 202, 203 are good lanes to turn fromAlm to Beech, after the turn, lane 206 may be preferable. In thismanner, the user can be notified in advance, which lane to be positionedin even before multiple actions are to be performed in connection withthe navigation route.

In this example, the look-ahead distance for position 236 included theaction at the intersection of Beech Street and Cruise Street. If thelook-ahead distance for position 236 did not reach that intersection,then the lane guidance for position 236 may indicate that each of thelanes 204-206 continues to the look-ahead distance. In such an examplein which the look-ahead distance is 750 feet, the lane scoring for lane204 may indicate a lane distance of 750 feet, the lane scoring for lane205 may indicate a lane distance of 750 feet, and the lane scoring forlane 206 may indicate a lane distance of 750 feet. Accordingly, each ofthe lanes 204-206 may score equally well as the look-ahead distance doesnot include the intersection at which the lanes do not all continuealong the route. As noted, however, the lanes may ultimately scoredifferently based on traffic or other lane-specific featuresincorporated into the scoring in addition to the lane distance.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example method for providing lane guidance inconnection with a navigation route according to one embodiment.According to one implementation, the method may be performed, forexample, by the lane guidance module 106. The lane guidance module 106receives or determines 300 a navigation route for which to generate laneguidance. For example, the navigation route can be determined by therouting module 104 in response to receiving a request for navigationfrom a user operating a user device 120. The navigation route can bebased on the current position of the user device 120 at the time therequest for navigation is received and a specified destination location.

A position on the route is identified 310 for determining the laneguidance, which may be a position of the user device 120 along thenavigation route, or another specified position of the navigation route(e.g., a position that the user will travel to from the currentlocation, or a position that is a predetermined distance away from thecurrent location along the navigation route). A look-ahead distance isdetermined 320 for the identified position. Depending on implementation,the look-ahead distance can be a predefined distance or a dynamicdistance that can change based on current conditions, such as based onthe user's speed of travel (e.g., based on location data points receivedfrom the user device 120) and/or other vehicles at the identifiedposition. Next, for each lane of a road segment that the identifiedposition is located at, the lane guidance module 106 determines 330 thelane distance that the lane continues along the route up to thelook-ahead distance, which may include the distance that the lanecontinues on a subsequent road after an action, as described above.Using the lane distance for each lane, the lanes are scored 340, whichmay include additional features in the scoring, such as expected trafficand other features noted above. The lane guidance information (e.g., thelane scoring or content corresponding to the lane scoring) is provided350 to the user device 120 for display to the user.

For example, the user device 120 can run an application (e.g., anavigation application or a map application) to initially make therequest for navigation and to receive navigation information from thenavigation system 100. The navigation system 100 can provide laneguidance information along with or as part of the navigation informationto the user device 120 such that the application can display content(e.g., text, graphics) corresponding to the lane guidance information onthe display of the user device 120 and/or output audio corresponding tothe lane guidance information (e.g., “The far right lane is the bestlane to drive on”) using the speakers of the user device 120.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example interface for providing lane guidance to auser. In this example, six lanes are displayed to the user. The lanesmay be color-coded or shaded to indicate the scoring of lanes. In thisexample, darker-colored lanes are lower-scoring than lighter-coloredlanes. Lanes 1, 2, and 6 are low-scoring lanes (from left to right),while lanes 3 and 4 are high-scoring lanes. Lane 5, however, scoresbelow lanes 3 and 4 and is displayed in a darker tone than those lanes,but is still a valid lane for the navigation route. In one example, thetones are provided on a scale representative of the lane's scorerelative to the highest-scoring lane. For example, the lanes may bedisplayed as a gradient from one color to another color (e.g., black towhite) based on the percentage of the lane's score compared to thehighest-scoring lane.

FIGS. 5A and 5B illustrate display of compound lane guidance accordingto one example. In these examples, a first road segment 500 has sixlanes, and a subsequent road segment 510 has five lanes (as describedherein, the user will travel along the first road segment before thesubsequent road segment, as provided in the navigation route). The firstroad segment 500 has three lanes that continue on to the subsequent roadsegment, and in this example, the third lane splits into two lanes onthe subsequent road segment 510. The lane scoring for the first roadsegment 500 indicates that the third and fourth lanes are mostdesirable, while the fifth lane is also a preferred lane as compared tothe first, second, and sixth lanes. The lane guidance for the subsequentroad segment differs between the examples of FIGS. 5A and 5B for purposeof illustration. In FIG. 5A, the second, third, and fourth lanes in thesubsequent road segment 510 are preferred lanes, while in FIG. 5B, thefirst lane scores highest (and is the best preferred lane). Thus, inFIG. 5B, a user may use the guidance for road segment 500 to determine alane for continuing on to road segment 510, while knowing that on roadsegment 510, the first lane is scores highest after the change to thesubsequent road 510. Accordingly, in the example of FIG. 5B, the usermay choose to travel along the third lane on the road segment 500 sothat he or she may then most easily change lanes from to the first laneof the road segment 510. In the last example, an audio prompt may beprovided either before (if the subsequent maneuver after the nextmaneuver is just a short distance after the next maneuver) or after thenext maneuver, warning the driver that a lane change to the left islikely necessary.

By using the colored lane guidance as shown in FIGS. 4, 5A, and 5B, as auser travels along a navigation route, the lanes may gradually darken asthe user approaches the end of the lane. For example, referring back theroute illustrated in FIG. 2, as the user travels from position 230 toposition 234, where initially each of the lanes may have scored highly,as the user approaches the action to turn right, the lanes that scorelower over time are visually presented to the user as increasinglydarker lanes, permitting a user to know that the lane will no longer bea good lane over time, and permitting a user to merge at the user'sconvenience, rather than receiving lane guidance only at the point of anaction (e.g., the intersection at which the user must turn).

While the examples of FIGS. 4, 5A, and 5B illustrate the lane guidancebeing shown in colors or tones, other indicators can be used to providethe lane guidance information to the user. For example, in one example,rather than using colors or tones, graphical or visual features can beshown for different lanes, while in another example, textual content canbe displayed corresponding to the most preferred lane for the user totravel in (e.g., “travel on either the second lane or third lane fromthe right”). Still further, in another example, the lane guidance module106 can also select the best lane for the user (e.g., make a decisionfor the user) based on the highest lane scoring as opposed to providingmultiple preferred lane information.

The foregoing description of the embodiments of the invention has beenpresented for the purpose of illustration; it is not intended to beexhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed.Persons skilled in the relevant art can appreciate that manymodifications and variations are possible in light of the abovedisclosure.

Some portions of this description describe the embodiments of theinvention in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations ofoperations on information. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are commonly used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to convey the substance of their work effectively toothers skilled in the art. These operations, while describedfunctionally, computationally, or logically, are understood to beimplemented by computer programs or equivalent electrical circuits,microcode, or the like. Furthermore, it has also proven convenient attimes, to refer to these arrangements of operations as modules, withoutloss of generality. The described operations and their associatedmodules may be embodied in software, firmware, hardware, or anycombinations thereof.

Any of the steps, operations, or processes described herein may beperformed or implemented with one or more hardware or software modules,alone or in combination with other devices. In one embodiment, asoftware module is implemented with a computer program productcomprising a computer-readable medium containing computer program code,which can be executed by a computer processor for performing any or allof the steps, operations, or processes described.

Embodiments of the invention may also relate to an apparatus forperforming the operations herein. This apparatus may be speciallyconstructed for the required purposes, and/or it may comprise ageneral-purpose computing device selectively activated or reconfiguredby a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer programmay be stored in a non-transitory, tangible computer readable storagemedium, or any type of media suitable for storing electronicinstructions, which may be coupled to a computer system bus.Furthermore, any computing systems referred to in the specification mayinclude a single processor or may be architectures employing multipleprocessor designs for increased computing capability.

Embodiments of the invention may also relate to a product that isproduced by a computing process described herein. Such a product maycomprise information resulting from a computing process, where theinformation is stored on a non-transitory, tangible computer readablestorage medium and may include any embodiment of a computer programproduct or other data combination described herein.

Finally, the language used in the specification has been principallyselected for readability and instructional purposes, and it may not havebeen selected to delineate or circumscribe the inventive subject matter.It is therefore intended that the scope of the invention be limited notby this detailed description, but rather by any claims that issue on anapplication based hereon. Accordingly, the disclosure of the embodimentsof the invention is intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, ofthe scope of the invention, which is set forth in the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: determining a first positionon a current road segment of a first user device based on signals from afirst location positioning sensor on the first user device; determininga second position on the current road segment of a second user devicebased on other signals from a second location positioning sensor on thesecond user device, the current road segment being part of a navigationroute of the second user device; providing first information to thefirst user device for displaying an indication of a selected lane of aplurality of lanes of the current road segment; for each of theplurality of lanes, determining a score for the lane based at least inpart on an estimated level of traffic for the lane along the navigationroute; responsive to determining that a difference between at least twoof the scores is within a threshold, providing second information to thesecond user device for displaying another indication of a differentselected lane of the plurality of lanes.
 2. The method of claim 1,further comprising: determining that the difference between the at leasttwo of the scores is within the threshold for at least a certain amountof time.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining thatthe difference between the at least two of the scores is within thethreshold for at least a certain distance along the current roadsegment.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining theestimated level of traffic for the lane along a distance of thenavigation route, the distance including additional distance from thefirst or second position to be traveled on one or more road segmentssubsequent to the current road segment.
 5. The method of claim 1,wherein providing the second information is further responsive todetermining to provide the first information to the first user device.6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the score comprises:responsive to determining that the lane merges with another lane alongthe current road segment, increasing the estimated level of traffic forthe lane.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the scorecomprises: responsive to determining that the lane splits into at leastone other lane along the current road segment, decreasing the estimatedlevel of traffic for the lane.
 8. A non-transitory computer readablestorage medium having instructions encoded thereon that, when executedby one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:determine a first position on a current road segment of a first userdevice based on signals from a first location positioning sensor on thefirst user device; determine a second position on the current roadsegment of a second user device based on other signals from a secondlocation positioning sensor on the second user device, the current roadsegment being part of a navigation route of the second user device;provide first information to the first user device for displaying anindication of a selected lane of a plurality of lanes of the currentroad segment; for each of the plurality of lanes, determine a score forthe lane based at least in part on an estimated level of traffic for thelane along the navigation route; responsive to determining that adifference between at least two of the scores is within a threshold,provide second information to the second user device for displayinganother indication of a different selected lane of the plurality oflanes.
 9. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim8, comprising further instructions encoded thereon that, when executedby the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:determine that the difference between the at least two of the scores iswithin the threshold for at least a certain amount of time.
 10. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8, comprisingfurther instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by the one ormore processors, cause the one or more processors to: determine that thedifference between the at least two of the scores is within thethreshold for at least a certain distance along the current roadsegment.
 11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium ofclaim 8, comprising further instructions encoded thereon that, whenexecuted by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processorsto: determine the estimated level of traffic for the lane along adistance of the navigation route, the distance including additionaldistance from the first or second position to be traveled on one or moreroad segments subsequent to the current road segment.
 12. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8, whereinproviding the second information is further responsive to determining toprovide the first information to the first user device.
 13. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8, whereindetermining the score comprises: responsive to determining that the lanemerges with another lane along the current road segment, increasing theestimated level of traffic for the lane.
 14. The non-transitory computerreadable storage medium of claim 8, wherein determining the scorecomprises: responsive to determining that the lane splits into at leastone other lane along the current road segment, decreasing the estimatedlevel of traffic for the lane.
 15. A system comprising: a first userdevice including a first location positioning sensor, the first userdevice configured to: determine a first position on a current roadsegment of the first user device based on signals from the firstlocation positioning sensor; provide first information for displaying,on the first user device, an indication of a selected lane of aplurality of lanes of the current road segment; a second user deviceincluding a second location positioning sensor, the second user deviceconfigured to: determine a second position on the current road segmentof the second user device based on other signals from the secondlocation positioning sensor, the current road segment being part of anavigation route of the second user device; for each of the plurality oflanes, determining a score for the lane based at least in part on anestimated level of traffic for the lane along the navigation route, theestimated level of traffic determined based at least in part on thefirst position; and responsive to determining that a difference betweenat least two of the scores is within a threshold, providing secondinformation for displaying, on the second user device, anotherindication of a different selected lane of the plurality of lanes. 16.The system of claim 15, wherein the second user device is furtherconfigured to: determine that the difference between the at least two ofthe scores is within the threshold for at least a certain amount of timeor at least a certain distance along the current road segment.
 17. Thesystem of claim 15, wherein the second user device is further configuredto: determine the estimated level of traffic for the lane along adistance of the navigation route, the distance including additionaldistance from the second position to be traveled on one or more roadsegments subsequent to the current road segment.
 18. The system of claim15, wherein providing the second information is further responsive todetermining that the first user device provided the first informationfor displaying the indication.
 19. The system of claim 15, whereindetermining the score comprises: responsive to determining that the lanemerges with another lane along the current road segment, increasing theestimated level of traffic for the lane.
 20. The system of claim 15,wherein determining the score comprises: responsive to determining thatthe lane splits into at least one other lane along the current roadsegment, decreasing the estimated level of traffic for the lane.